The European Union will only dispatch election observers for the October 2020 presidential election in Cote d’Ivoire, after a positive” assessment of a mission to be sent to the country in June, according to the bloc’s Resident Representative in Abidjan, Jobst Von Kirchmann.
“The Ivorian government has asked us to make an electoral observation…we will do it if the assessment mission concludes in a positive way,” said Jobst Von Kirchmann, head of the EU mission in Cote d’Ivoire.
Jobst Von Kirchmann, was speaking at a press club organized by the National Union of Journalists of Cote d’Ivoire at the Maison de la Presse in the Plateau Area, the Business Center of the Ivorian economic hub.
The EU will send ‘an electoral observation mission after an assessment in June,” he said, emphasising that “this is our active contribution as a partner, so that the elections go smoothly”.
As a partner of Cote d’Ivoire, the EU supports the electoral process, said the European diplomat.
The EU is seen as a “very important partner,” the leading trading partner of Cote d’Ivoire, given that 40 percent of Ivorian exports go to the European Union.
Cote d’Ivoire, the world’s leading cocoa producer, exports 70 percent of its produce to the European Union, compared to 3 percent of exports to China.
In 2019, the EU ratified a trade agreement with Cote d’Ivoire as part of a regional exchange mechanism.
“The first export country of Cote d’Ivoire in the EU space is the Netherlands, far ahead of the others, because Ivorian produce enter through the port of Rotterdam in a single market, where it circulates freely, to go to France, Belgium and Germany,” he added.
The European Union currently includes 27 countries following Brexit, Britain’s exit from the bloc.
The organization, which boasts of 450 million inhabitants, is the first trading bloc in the world.
Meanwhile current Ivorian leader Alassane Ouattara last week announced that he would not be a candidate for the October 31, 2020 presidential election.
AP/ls/fss/as/APA